IDC: China’s Smartphone Shipments was 78 Million Units in 1Q13, Up 117% from 1Q12

Storm WilliamsJun 18, 2013

An IDC report shows that China’s mobile phone shipments reached 97 million units in the 1Q2013, up 15% compared with the same period in 2012. In addition, China’s smartphone shipments totaled 78 million units in 1Q2013, a growth of 117% compared with the same period in 2012.

According to the report the large growth in smartphone market is attributed largely to increase in China Mobile’s subscriptions.

Shipments of TDMA-based (Time Division Multiple Access) smartphones reached 28 million units in the first quarter of 2013, with an on-year growth of 390%. This resulted in the share of smartphones in China’s mobile phone market reaching a new high of 79%.

From the perspective of vendors, in terms of smartphone shipments, Samsung Electronics continues to rank as No. 1 with a market share of 19% and a link relative ratio of 34%. Its shipments of products under US$200 grew by 47%.

In the first quarter, Apple ranked the fifth with a market share of 9% and a link relative ratio of 21%. The shipments of iPhone 4 (8GB), which is an excellent performer, grew by 211% over the previous quarter.

China Mobile is not an official carrier of Aplle’s iPhone despite having millions of iPhones using its network.

“Thanks to operator subsidies and robust consumer demands for new phones, China’s smartphone shipments will increase sharply in 2013; in 2017, smartphone shipments will exceed 460 million units to reach a market size of CNY740.5 billion (US$117.8 billion),” according to the report.

IDC predicts that:

With an increasing share of upstream 4G chip vendors engaging in mass production, the push by China’s three major operators, and the support from terminal vendors, the shipments of 4G mobile phones will outnumber those of 3G mobile phones in 2017.

Influenced by the operators’ demands for customized product specifications (large screen over 5-inch, dual-core/quad-core) and the positive effect of Samsung’s Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series on the growth of large-screen mobile phone market, large-screen mobile phones are gradually becoming acceptable to consumers. As a result, mobile phone vendors have quickly responded with the release of a large amount of smartphones with 5-inch above screens. IDC data indicates that, as of the first quarter of 2013, the market share of 5-inch above smartphones reached 7.5%. IDC forecasts that this figure will exceed 20% by the end of 2013.